2004 Maryland-bred champions

Horse of the year
Two-year-old male
Declan’s Moon

Dk.b./br.g., 2002, by Malibu Moon—Vee Vee Star, by Norquestor; bred by Brice Ridgely; owned by Jay Em Ess Stable; trained by Ronald W. Ellis. Foaled at Spring Meadow Farm, Cooksville.

What was the chance that a Maryland-bred gelding who bypassed the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Stakes-G1 would end up taking the Eclipse Award as the nation’s champion 2-year-old male?
Declan’s Moon defied the odds, and more, with a perfect 2-year-old campaign that included victories in each of his four starts and culminated with a frontrunning triumph over Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Wilko in the Grade 1 Hollywood Futurity.
He is one of only three horses ever to win the juvenile male title since the advent of the Breeders’ Cup in 1984 without competing on the championship day (the others being Forty Niner in 1987 and Maria’s Mon in 1996), and he is the first non-Breeders’ Cup Juvenile starter to win the Eclipse Award while racing on the West Coast.
Declan’s Moon was bred by Brice Ridgely, a longtime Maryland horseman who does not aspire to either the Breeders’ Cup or national titles. Ridgely purchased Declan’s Moon’s dam Vee Vee Star (by deceased Maryland stallion Norquestor) as a “skinny yearling” for $3,500 and was surprised, as well as delighted, when she developed into a stakes-caliber runner who finished third in the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes-G2 won by champion Silverbulletday.
Vee Vee Star produced Declan’s Moon as her second foal. A standout from his earliest months, Declan’s Moon made his first public appearance at the Maryland Horse Breeders Association’s Yearling Show, and turned a number of heads, including that of the judge, trainer Barclay Tagg, who pinned him first in a class of 23 Maryland-bred males.
Word spread about Ridgely’s yearling (named for his grandson Declan) in the days leading up to the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Eastern Fall Yearling sale, where Declan’s Moon was offered as part of the consignment of Ridgely’s longtime friend and adviser Bill Reightler.
And Samantha Siegel, who made the final bid at $125,000 (fifth-highest price at the sale) knew she’d found a good one, even then. “I went to the sale hoping to find a Malibu Moon that I liked, and I did,” Siegel was quoted in the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred’s post-sale recap.
Siegel and her father Mace live in California but have hunted for bargains, while spending relatively big bucks, at Maryland auctions since the 1980s.
Declan’s Moon’s sire Malibu Moon made a brief but impressive racing career in the Siegels’ home state before retiring to stud at the Pons family’s Country Life Farm in Bel Air, Md. The Siegels had not only watched Malibu Moon race, but in 2003 they witnessed the exploits of his first-crop son Perfect Moon, a graded stakes winner in California.
Their hopes proved well-founded as Declan’s Moon, campaigning for the Siegels’ Jay Em Ess Stable and trained by Ron Ellis, became the second Malibu Moon son in a row to lead the 2-year-old Maryland-bred division—as well as the Siegels’ first Eclipse Award winner.
Malibu Moon moved on to Kentucky for the 2004 season, as a star on the rise. He now stands at Castleton Lyons farm, but his growing impact is a boost for Maryland, as Country Life continues to own a major interest in the 8-year-old son of A.P. Indy.
Declan’s Moon launched his championship season with a five-length victory in a five and a half-furlong maiden special weight at Del Mar on July 31, and moved right up to stakes company, scoring by a neck over highly regarded Roman Ruler in the seven-furlong Del Mar Futurity-G2 on September 8. Making his next two starts at Hollywood Park, his annexed the seven-furlong Hollywood Prevue Stakes-G3 (on November 20) by two lengths. The Hollywood Futurity, on December 18, sealed his championship bid as he took the lead early in the mile and a sixteenth contest and held on gamely to score by a length, as 1.2 favorite, forcing Breeders’ Cup star Wilko to settle for third.
Declan’s Moon earned $507,300 in his four starts at 2. And that may be only the beginning for the Maryland-bred, who is the early season favorite for the Kentucky Derby.

Two-year-old filly
Hear Us Roar

B.f., 2002, by Lion Hearted—Grand Slalom, by Broad Brush;
bred and owned by Rosalee C. Davison; trained by Francis P. Campitelli. Foaled at Chanceland Farm, West Friendship.

All it takes is one good horse, as the saying goes.
Rosalee Davison and her husband Richard found a golden producer in 1969, when Davison’s father Ben Cohen, then co-owner of Pimlico race course, urged them to buy the *Gallant Man daughter Gracefully. She was their first broodmare.

Gracefully provided the Davisons with three stakes horses, one of whom was Maryland-bred Guilty Conscience, the 1981 Eclipse Award-winning sprinter.
Having reached the summit with Guilty Conscience, the Davisons would wait a long time to campaign another champion. It happened last year with Hear Us Roar—whose granddam Aspen Ruthie (1980, Northern Jove) was a half-sister to Guilty Conscience.

“It’s so strange to be back in the cycle,” said Davison. “We feel like we’re experiencing deja vu.”
Hear Us Roar, one of two juvenile stakes winners from the first crop of Maryland sire Lion Hearted, went undefeated in three starts for trainer Fran Campitelli, all at her home base of Pimlico. Unveiled in a maiden special weight on August 27, she scored by five lengths, encouraging Campitelli to aim for the Maryland Million Lassie on October 9. Hear Us Roar lived up to her name on Maryland Million Day, coming from off the pace and charging five-wide down the stretch for a three-quarter-length victory. A frontrunning triumph as odds-on favorite in the November 20 Selima Stakes solidified her status as the top Maryland-bred 2-year-old filly of the season.

The Davisons continue to own Hear Us Roar’s 15-year-old dam Grand Slalom (by Broad Brush). A year-round boarder at Bob Manfuso and Katy Voss’s Chanceland Farm in West Friendship, Grand Slalom was undistinguished on the race track, winning once in three starts and earning $9,690. But Hear Us Roar is her fifth stakes performer from six foals of racing age. Grand Slalom’s earlier runners include Grand Valley ($160,407, 3rd Alma North S), Tamayo ($128,540, 2nd Maryland Million Oaks, etc.), Experts Only ($124,963, 3rd HBPA West Virginia S) and Cryptic Skier (2nd Maryland Juvenile Championship S).

Grand Slalom slipped to the cover of Not For Love for 2004, and is due to foal this season to Ecton Park. She is booked to Lion Hearted.

Three-year-old male
Love of Money

Dk.b./br.c., 2001, by Not For Love—Mescalina, by Smarten;
bred by Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Bowman, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Sutton and Milton P. Higgins III; owned by Jay Em Ess Stable; trained by Richard E. Dutrow Jr. Foaled at Dance Forth Farm, Chestertown.

Love of Money is cut from the same cloth as Eclipse Award winner and Maryland-bred Horse of the Year Declan’s Moon.

Both were sired (as well as foaled) in this state, raised here and sold at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Eastern Fall Yearling sale. And each made his mark last season for California-based owners Samantha and Mace Siegel, under the banner of Jay Em Ess Stable.
Love of Money—one of three 2004 Maryland-bred champions sired by leading Maryland sire Not For Love—rose to stardom with a dramatic upset in the Grade 2 Pennsylvania Derby on September 6 at Philadelphia Park. Overlooked at odds of 12.7-1 in a full field of accomplished 3-year-olds, Love of Money shot to the lead at the break and displayed an awesome turn of foot, coasting under the wire eight and a half lengths in front of his closest rival, Kentucky Derby contender Pollard’s Vision. In his stakes debut, as well as his first attempt around two turns, Love of Money earned a 112 Beyer speed figure.

The victory came just two days before Declan’s Moon’s triumph in the Del Mar Futurity-G2, giving the Siegels one of their best racing streaks ever—their stable netted $600,000 with the two wins. However, Love of Money and Declan’s Moon are not the Siegels’ first Maryland-bred champions. Major buyers at Fasig-Tipton Midlantic auctions over the past two decades, the Siegels campaigned millionaire Grade 1 winner Urbane (by Citidancer), a $25,000 sales purchase who was a Maryland-bred champion every year she raced, from ages 2 to 4 (1994 to 1996).

Love of Money was bred in partnership by former Maryland Horse Breeders Association president Tom Bowman and his wife Chris, Tom and Carol Sutton and Milton P. Higgins III.
The Siegels bought him for $70,000 at the sale, and turned him over to New York-based trainer Ricky Dutrow, who brought him along with utmost patience. A sprained hind suspensory delayed the colt’s progress, but “I knew if I was patient, we’d have a very nice race horse on our hands,” said Dutrow.
The trainer’s words were prophetic, as Love of Money easily broke his maiden in his first start, a maiden special weight on June 12, 2004, at Belmont. Love of Money went into the Pennsylvania Derby with two wins and one second from three starts. He made one more appearance last season, finishing sixth in the Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes-G1 won by Funny Cide. In five starts, Love of Money earned $491,500 and was the third-leading Maryland-bred money-earner of the season, behind Our New Recruit and Declan’s Moon.

Love of Money’s dam, Mes­calina, still is owned by the breeders. Purchased by Bow­man and Higgins for $18,000 as a yearling at the 1994 Keeneland January sale, she produced Love of Money as her fourth foal. Her first foal was Astrid, a 1998 filly by Concern who was a multiple stakes winner of $242,539. Mes­ca­lina’s Our Emblem colt, Back to Even, sold for $30,000 at the 2004 Eastern Fall Yearling sale. She has a yearling colt by Two Punch. Barren for 2005, she is booked to Smarty Jones.

Three-year-old filly
He Loves Me

B.f., 2001, by Not For Love—Palliser Bay, by Frosty the Snowman; bred and owned by Buckingham Farm; trained by Richard W. Small. Foaled at Halycon Farm, Lutherville.

Years of planning and patience occasionally pay off with an unforgettable run of success.
For her breeders Eddie and Binnie Houghton, He Loves Me’s 2004 campaign was that kind of experience. “We had more fun—we even went to Iowa!” said Binnie Houghton, referring to He Loves Me’s vic­tory in the Grade 3 Iowa Oaks.

The Houghtons have bred and raced horses from their Buckingham Farm in Chestertown, Md., since the 1960s, and have had many outstanding performers, including 1986 Maryland-bred turf champion Castelets ($614,486). But He Loves Me may be the most talented filly so far to come off their farm.
He Loves Me (by leading Mid-Atlantic sire Not For Love) was a near-unanimous selection as champion Maryland-bred 3-year-old filly, based on her hard-hitting campaign that included five stakes victories.

Trained by widely accomplished local conditioner Dickie Small, He Loves Me remained in action from January through November, competing at six different tracks. She registered back-to-back victories in the Wide Country and Caesar’s Wish Stakes at Laurel and Pimlico in March and April, and compiled a three-race win streak in late spring and early summer, capturing in steady succession the Pearl Necklace (May 31, Pimlico), Iowa Oaks (July 2, Prairie Meadows) and Twixt Stakes (July 31, Pimlico).
In addition, she finished third in the Grade 1 Gazelle Stakes (September 11, Belmont Park) and fourth behind Eclipse Award winner Ashado in the Grade 2 Cotillion Handicap (October 2, Philadelphia Park).

He Loves Me is the first foal from the Houghtons’ stakes-winning mare Palliser Bay. Purchased by the Houghtons for $32,000 at the 1994 Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company March 2-year-olds in training sale, Palliser Bay (Frosty the Snowman—Caro Keri, by Caro-Ire) won the 1997 Gallorette Handicap-G3 and two other stakes, and was also six times stakes-placed, for earnings of $248,623.
The Houghtons are looking forward to racing Palliser Bay’s 3-year-old Allen’s Prospect colt Pine Cay, who is in training with Small. Also waiting in the wings are He Loves Me’s 2-year-old full sister, For Kisses, and a yearling half-sister by Cape Town. Palliser Bay failed to conceive to the cover of Carson City for 2005, but was bred this season to Not For Love.

He Loves Me is expected to resume her racing career this season for a new owner—Peter Karches, who bought her from the Houghtons in early February. Her new trainer is Christophe Clement.

Older male
Sprinter
Our New Recruit

Ch.h., 1999, by Alphabet Soup—Delta Danielle, by Lord Avie;
bred by Thomas A. Graul; owned by CRK Stable; trained by John W. Sadler. Foaled at Manor Glen Farm, Monkton.

Fifteen Maryland-breds have earned $1 million or more, but none of the others has risen to millionaire status as quickly as Our New Recruit.

A graded stakes-placed performer in California before venturing to Dubai in early 2004, Our New Recruit vaulted into the ranks of top Maryland-bred earners with his surprise victory (over 2003 Breeders’ Cup Sprint-G1 winner Cajun Beat) in the six-furlong Dubai Golden Shaheen-G1 at Nad Al Sheba race course on March 27. The race was worth $1.2 million to the winner.
With current total career earnings of $1,470,920, Our New Recruit is the ninth-leading Maryland-bred money-earner of all time. He was far and away the leading Maryland-bred earner of 2004, his season’s total of $1,265,800 (earned in five starts) more than doubling that of the runner-up on the list, state-bred Horse of the Year Declan’s Moon ($507,300).

Our New Recruit’s 2004 campaign was all peaks and valleys. He finished third in the Grade 2 Palos Verdes Handicap on February 1 at Santa Anita, then rose to stardom in Dubai. After a five-month layoff, he returned to win the Pirate’s Bounty Handicap on September 6 at Del Mar. Next on his agenda was the Breeders’ Cup Sprint-G1, on October 30 at Lone Star Park, but the hugely ambitious Dubai-Breeders’ Cup double play proved beyond his reach, as he finished 12th in the field of 13. Our New Recruit finished out the season with a fifth in the Vernon O. Underwood Stakes-G3 on December 5 at Hollywood Park. He underwent surgery in mid-February for a bone chip in an ankle, and thus is not able to return to Dubai to defend his title, but he is expected to return to action later in 2005.
Owned by the CRK Stable of Susan Mattie Searing, and trained by California-based conditioner John W. Sadler, Our New Recruit (by Kentucky sire Alphabet Soup) has strong roots in Maryland. He was bred by Tom Graul, the owner of a supermarket in Hereford, Md. Three years ago, as the result of a divorce, Graul sold all of his horses, as well as the 81-acre farm, Manor Glen in Monkton, where Our New Recruit was foaled.

Our New Recruit’s dam Delta Danielle (by Lord Avie) now is a prized member of the broodmare band at David and Jo Ann Hayden’s Dark Hollow Farm in Upperco, Md. It was David Hayden who advised Graul upon the purchase of Delta Danielle for $40,000 at the 1999 Keeneland January sale. Delta Danielle was carrying Our New Recruit at the time.
Graul sold Our New Recruit as a weanling for $40,000 at the 1999 Keeneland November sale. The colt was resold for $47,000 at the next year’s Keeneland September Yearling sale, and he went through the ring a third time at the 2001 Barretts 2-year-olds in training sale, where Sadler bought him $120,000.

Delta Danielle’s 2004 juvenile filly, Heartful Hero (by Partner’s Hero), was stakes-placed last year; the mare has a Two Punch yearling and was barren to the cover of Alphabet Soup for 2005. She was bred this season to Unbridled’s Song.

Older female
Angela’s Love

Dk.b./br.m., 2000, by Not For Love—Goldgorian’s Alden, by John Alden; bred by Dr. George E. Harmening, Kimberly Harmening and William Campbell; owned by Bill and Vicki Poston; trained by
Dale L. Romans. Foaled at Equine Services, Westminster.

Buying a race track reject is not usually a formula for outstanding results in the breeding business. But it worked for George Harmening, his wife Kim and partner William Campbell.
Harmening, a veterinarian with the Maryland race track practice of Yergey, Stewart and Vallance, bought Goldgorian’s Alden (by John Alden) for a nominal sum from a Bowie-based trainer in 1999, after she failed to make a comeback in her racing career. With 10 wins from 38 starts, including a victory in the Maryland Million Distaff Starter Handicap, and earnings of $100,788, Goldgorian’s Alden had apparent broodmare potential.

But no one could have predicted that she would produce a graded stakes winner as her first foal.
Angela’s Love (by Not For Love) rose to the fore as a 4-year-old last season, winning the Grade 3 Gardenia Handicap at Ellis Park on August 7, in the midst of a seasonal campaign that was noteworthy for both its class and consistency.

Competing at six different tracks, Angela’s Love won or placed in a total of four stakes, including a victory in the Fairway Fun Stakes on March 27 at Turfway Park, and thirds in the Turfway Park Breeders’ Cup Handicap-G3 (September 18, Turfway Park) and Cardinal Handicap-G3 (November 20, Churchill Downs).
She had three wins—by a combined margin of 16Z\x lengths—including an optional claiming event, in which she did not compete for a price, on February 22 at Gulf­stream. And she took on the best, competing against champion Azeri in the Grade 1 Spinster Stakes on October 10 at Keene­land. Her season’s earnings were $224,795.
Owned by Bill and Vicki Poston of Atlanta, Ga., and trained by Dale Romans, Angela’s Love was sold by the Harmenings, in the name of their Equine Services Inc., for $58,000 at the 2001 Fasig-Tip­ton Midlantic Eastern Fall Year­ling sale.

One of two broodmares kept by the Harmenings at their 15-acre farm in Carroll County, Goldgorian’s Alden has a 2-year-old Two Punch filly, Alden’s Punch, whom the Harmenings sold for $67,000 at last year’s Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July sale. The mare was due to foal in 2005 to Not For Love.

Turf runner
Slew Valley

B.h., 1997, by Valley Crossing—Slewway, by Slewpy; bred by W. James Hindman; owned by Rich Meadow Farm and Alan Burkhard; trained by Reade Baker. Foaled at Rich Meadow Farm, Westminster.

Slew Valley is one of the oldest runners ever to win a Maryland-bred championship for the first time. But the son of 1993 Maryland-bred Horse of the Year Valley Crossing is no late arrival on the scene.
Campaigning for the partnership of his breeder Jim Hindman’s Rich Meadow Farm and Alan Burkhard, Slew Valley has been a force within the national turf ranks for the past several years. Throughout his career he has contested 21 graded stakes, primarily on the turf, and has won or placed in nine of them.
The big, long-striding horse reached new heights last season when sent to Woodbine under the care of trainer Reade Baker. Finding Woodbine’s sweeping turf course to his liking, Slew Valley posted back-to-back victories in the May 30 Connaught Cup-G3 (defeating Canadian champion Le Cinquieme Essai) and King Edward Breeders’ Cup Handicap-G2 on June 19. The two hard-fought triumphs helped to boost Slew Valley’s season’s earnings to $353,360, and his lifetime total to $767,040.
Earlier in the season, Slew Valley won a optional claiming race at Gulfstream Park and finished second in Gulfstream’s Mac Diarmida Handicap-G3, won by Request for Parole, and third in the Fort Marcy Handicap-G3 at Aqueduct.

Slew Valley is the horse of a lifetime—so far—for Hindman and his wife Dixie, who have been in the business about 10 years at their picturesque 90-acre Rich Meadow Farm near Westminster.
Slew Valley’s dam Slewway (by Slewpy) was purchased by the Hindmans in the winter of 1996, in foal to Pentelicus.

Slew Valley was born the following year from a mating with Valley Crossing, who then stood at the Boniface family’s Bonita Farm in Darlington, Md. Although the Hindmans breed primarily for the sales ring, Slew Valley had little commercial appeal as a youngster. “He was a gangly colt who plodded along,” said Hindman. “Then the ugly duckling grew into a swan.”
Slewway, whose 1994 colt K. J.’s Appeal (by Valid Appeal) developed into a Grade 1 stakes winner of $563,880, is now a pensioner at Rich Meadow.

Steeplechaser
Preemptive Strike

Ch.g., 1998, by Roanoke—Mirkwood, by Far North;
bred by Klobia S. Carroll; owned by Polaris Stables;
trained by Paul Rowland. Foaled at Elmridge Farm, North East.

Like many steeplechasers, Preemptive Strike was an accident. Well—not exactly an accident, but nobody planned for him to be a steeplechase horse. He grew out of flat racing, and into a new job, where he’s the employee of the year.

Basically given away by his breeder, the rangy chestnut won three races (all stakes) in 2004 and earned $130,688, to place fifth in the National Steeplechase Association standings. He receives the Maryland-bred championship in a tight decision over Tres Touche and Cherokeeinthehills.
Tres Touche won two Grade 1 stakes, but finished well behind Preemptive Strike in the season-ending Colonial Cup-NSA1, while Cherokeeinthehills won a Grade 1 against novice company.
Preemptive Strike proved his mettle with two stakes scores, the $40,000 Little Ever­glades Stakes and $50,000 Caro­lina Cup, to start the year. He then finished second to Eclipse Award winner Hirapour (Ire) in the Grade 1 Royal Chase at Keeneland. A fall in the Grade 1 Iroquois ended the spring campaign on a downer, but Preemptive Strike returned with a flourish in the fall—winning the $50,000 Appleton-NSA3 at Far Hills in October and then nearly stealing the Colonial Cup in November. He set most of the pace, and fought off two challenges in the stretch, but had to settle for second when Hirapour pounced in the final furlong.

For his steeplechase career, Preemptive Strike has won five races and $210,654. He is on track for a 2005 campaign.

Toughness has always been a part of the horse’s makeup, but Carroll gave up on the horse after some leg problems and an ugly, two-start flat career.
“He was never mean—he just had lots of energy and was a lot of work,” said Carroll, who sent her mare Mirkwood (by Far North) to Roanoke in search of a combination of power, speed and turf ability.

The mating produced all that, and more.